What’s That Metro Stop? Noma Goes Legit.

WMATA recently announced some much-needed changes to the names of several Metro stops. Por ejemplo, Waterfront will finally ditch SEU (the mysterious institute of higher learning I barely even knew existed when it shuttered its doors over two years ago), and, more locally, the brevity-challenged New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U has been shortened and rebranded as NoMa-Gallaudet U.

Your beloved blogger applauds this change. The station has an entrance at 2nd and N Streets NE by the ATF headquarters and another one on M Street between 1st and 2nd, which, last time I checked, is neither New York or Florida Ave. Interesting tidbit — Gallaudet doesn’t even want their name associated with the stop.

While I’m not quite so enthusiastic about developers forcing the bland NoMa moniker down our collective throats, I think it goes a long way in helping to establish an identity, which at the moment is virtually nonexistent. But be patient — these things take time. A metro stop is certainly a step in the right direction.

So, to recap, a rare good decision by Metro. Even though I voted to rename the stop SoFlo/Swampoodle.